The urgency to address the occupational health of chinese seafarers for sustainable development

Abstract The working condition, welfare, and the corresponding occupational health of 668 Chinese seafarers were investigated at the beginning of 2019 to provide a systematic overview of the occupational condition and health of Chinese seafarers. Results showed that approximately majority of seafarers get a salary higher than the national average wage, and Chinese seafarers have high satisfaction over the food onboard. However, there are many major challenges for the sustainable development of Chinese seafarers, including the long-term trips, length daily working hours, the environmental stress on board, isolation from families, and limited space for entertainment and medical treatment. These challenges have induced a high percentage of physical and psychological complaints among Chinese seafarers. Despite the lower salary and longer working hours, the overall occupational health of freelancer seafarers is better than that of seafarers with fixed contracts. Data showed that seafarers who love sailing or get support from families maintain better occupational health in comparison to others. The findings call for a joint effort from shipping companies, policymakers, and international organizations to better the working conditions, shift schedule, and other overall management of seafarers, enhancing the communication between seafarers and their families, improving the availability of medical care and psychological counseling services, paying more respects to seafarers and developing proper action mechanisms to ensure the occupational health of seafarers.